1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to discovering content received by a device. More particularly, embodiments of the invention relate to the guided discovery of media content on media streams available to portable audio devices.
2. The Relevant Technology
Digital media comes in a variety of different formats and can be enjoyed on a wide variety of devices. Many of these devices, such as digital audio devices (e.g., MP3 players), CD players, DVD players, notebook computers, cellular telephones, and personal digital assistants, are portable devices with wireless capabilities. The growth in portable device technology corresponds with a growth in wireless network technology and the ability to distribute digital media. As a result, digital media can received over wireless networks that include, for example, IP based networks, radio networks, cellular networks, and WiFi networks.
Digital media can also be received over satellite radio networks. In satellite radio, satellites broadcast digital radio content to subscribers. Through satellite radio, subscribers can receive high quality, uninterrupted, digital media content such as radio over more than one hundred different radio channels. The digital media transmitted over satellite radio can include, by way of example, digital quality music, talk radio, sports, news, weather, and the like. Often, in order to take advantage of the content offered over satellite radio networks, a user of satellite radio needs a portable device that can receive and ultimately play or perform the digital media content.
One of the goals the media content providers want to achieve is enabling users to discover new content because the discovery of new content correlates with revenue growth. There are several tools that currently exist and that are used to help a user discover content. For example, users that purchase songs from a website can provide the website with certain preferences that help the website suggest songs that the user may want to purchase. When a user indicates that he or she prefers a certain genre, then artists included in that genre may be presented to the user. When a user identifies a particular artist, the website can present similar artists to the user. The website uses these preferences to minimize the searching that the user performs as well as to encourage the sale of the new content. Using user preferences to suggest songs is often successful because users are more likely to purchase content if they have some assurance that it is similar to content with which they are familiar.
While websites can attempt to discover content for a user, this type of discovery is limited to existing content or to content that is stored by the website. However, the website cannot currently discover content in data streams that a device is capable of receiving. The website, for example, may compare the information provided by the user with information stored in its own databases to identify media content that could be recommended to the user. In contrast, content provided over satellite radio, for example, cannot be discovered in the same way as content existing on the storage of a website. Even though the website may be aware of the user's preferences, the website is unable to discover content that is delivered over satellite radio networks.
Conventional satellite radios do not have the ability to discover content in data streams available to the satellite radios. For example, a satellite radio can receive multiple channels of content over a satellite network and a user is free to discover content by changing channels. The satellite network, however, is unable to recommend another channel or specific content on another channel to the user.
One of the difficulties in automating the discovery of content delivered to a device over a satellite network as a data stream is that the content cannot be searched like the database of a website because satellite communication is unidirectional. Thus, a query for specific content cannot be delivered to the source of the content and the content cannot, therefore, be searched like the content of a website. As a result, content is conventionally discovered by simply changing channels. The device itself cannot currently guide the discovery of content on the device.